Yvette Walker
With KVCR News, I'm Yvette Walker. This is IE Latino Voices, where we invite representatives from Latino led and Latino serving organizations to share their stories and their impact in our region. Joining me today is Esther Fernandez, art curator at The Cheech. Thank you for being with us today.
Esther Fernandez
Thank you so much for having me.
Yvette Walker
Esther, let's start off by talking about how you started your journey in becoming an art curator.
Esther Fernandez
I have to shout out my mom, who's no longer with us, but she instilled a great love of the arts in our family. She was an avid film goer and museum lover, reader, music lover, and so we grew up having our cultura around us, having our music, our culture, and a deep respect for artists. And so with that, I went on to school, and as an undergrad, encountered this whole Chicano Studies and this identity of Chicanismo, and began to explore more deeply what that means being Mexicana. I grew up identifying as Mexicana to very proud parents who are immigrants. I encountered a Chicano exhibition there called Gara at the Fowler Museum at UCLA. And it was the first time that I stepped into a museum and saw my culture reflected back to me in a very powerful way. Since that day, I wanted to pursue something in the arts and did.
Yvette Walker
What is the mission within the Chicano art landscape, and the importance of sharing our Latino story at the Cheech?
Esther Fernandez
Chicano artists, and like many artists from communities of color, from historically disenfranchised communities, art tells our story. You know, art tells our history. We are a culture of storytellers. And so I think what makes The Cheech so special, and I think why it resonates with folks is that they're having those experiences where they're coming in and they're seeing the work. Some people, perhaps for the first time, others who maybe have seen it just in photos, and I think Cheech’s collection really contributed to disseminating that work in a very powerful way. We had this collector who was purchasing work for 30 to 40 years, 40 years before anyone was collecting this work, and now they have a space where they can go and see it every day.
Yvette Walker
That is absolutely lovely, and it's perfectly located in Downtown Riverside. Esther, how did The Cheech land in Riverside in the first place? And can you share a bit of the background on the relationship within the community?
Esther Fernandez
It's a beautiful story. The Riverside Art Museum is a museum that was founded by artists. It's been in existence for 60 years, and they had an exhibition in 2017 of Cheech’s works on paper called Papel Chicano Dos. And the community came out. You had lines out the door, from what I heard from the story. And there were city officials that were there that approached the museum and said, we need to bring this collection here. And so our late chairperson Ofelia Valdes-Yeager, was very active in the community, and she galvanized the Latino community to fundraise.
Yvette Walker
You mentioned free programming in a previous conversation for the community, what does that look like?
Esther Fernandez
We have free programming every Thursday, from 6-9pm on the first Thursday of the month, both at the Cheech and the Riverside Art Museum. We also have during the summer, every Sunday of the month is free in June, July and August, and folks can come out and enjoy both centers.
Yvette Walker
Share with us an overview of the art collection as it stands in The Cheech. You know, I mentioned recently that I went and one of my favorite pieces was a cactus with the tunas shaped like a heart.
Esther Fernandez
Absolutely. On the first floor when you first walk in, we have the Altura Credit Union community gallery, which features artists from the Inland Empire. And it's the first gallery that greets you when you walk in. You of course, see the beautiful donor heart that you're talking about, that was commissioned by the Riverside Art Museum to honor all the donors that stepped forward to make sure The Cheech would happen. And that was created by Einar and Jamex De La Torre, two artists that live and work both in Mexico and in San Diego. And then on the first floor, we have Cheech Collects, which is our permanent collection, which includes the gift of over 500 works that Cheech Marin gave to the Riverside Art Museum permanent collection, as well as other donations by other collectors and artists that have stepped forward and have been excited. So that's what you see on the first floor. The second floor, we have rotating exhibitions of works on loan.
Yvette Walker
And in addition to that, you're stepping into the music landscape, and I'm familiar with mariachi, but today you're working with artists in residency workshops for Son Jarocho, where did the roots of this music emerge from?
Esther Fernandez
That's our new artist in residency program in music, and it'll feature Son Jarocho, which is music from Veracruz that has indigenous and African and Spanish roots. It's an evolving art form that has been here in the United States, brought here by artists and maestros that come to teach about instrumentation, the jarana, which is a beautiful guitar, the zapateado, the footwork and the versos that tell all kinds of stories, again, like the visual arts telling stories of our communities. So we're excited to offer those free workshops that will be coming up just. Look forward on the website, it's open to all.
Yvette Walker
Esther, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your phenomenal work at The Cheech.
Esther Fernandez
Thank you very much for having us. Esther Fernandez is art curator at the Cheech.
Yvette Walker
Join us again next week for IE Latino Voices. You can find this story and others on our website at kvcrnews.org/IELatinoVoices. IE Latino Voices is produced by KVCR Public Media and is funded by generous support from the CIELO Fund at IECF, uplifting and investing in the IE’s Latino community. For KVCR News, I'm Yvette Walker.
